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Inner Selves (Chapters from Book)

How to Conquer the Korean Spa

So a friend of mine introduced me to the Korean Spa experience in Korea town L.A. about two years ago. I talk in depth about it in my book in the chapter Called Armour. It’s a trippy place…not your usual Americanized spa trip. No cover ups allowed. These ladies are hard core.

So a woman in the hottest sauna started chatting with me and we ended up hanging out for over an hour together. I love the saunas. The hot ones, the warm ones, the salt ones, the jade ones. I’ve always loved the heat. But the cold. The cold I just can’t handle. There are cold pools just outside the saunas that you’re supposed to use to cool down. Then, when you start to get frostbite…you hop back in the sauna again.

I think it’s kind of a yin and yang thing to create balance in the body. I have a high tolerance for the heat…I can sweat it out longer than most people. But the cold…the cold has always been a little too shocking for me. Obviously I’m a little imbalanced in more ways than one.

But today this woman and I were having a good chat and without thinking about it, I walked out with her to the cold sauna. I started to climb in and saw some women from across the room give me a look. I quickly realized the woman I had been talking to was rinsing first before she jumped into to the cold pool. So I followed suit and rinsed off with a bunch of freezing cold water before jumping in the cold pool.

I Got the Evil Eye

The woman explained that you’ll get the evil eye from the older Korean women if you don’t rinse off between each step. And who wants the evil eye? I suppose it depends on the context in which it is given to you. I received an evil eye once as a gift from a Turkish woman. In Turkey they believe in an eye for an eye. An evil eye charm to combat the evil eye someone may place upon you. The evil eye she gave me is made of blue glass and is the size of a square coaster.

People always have their reasons for giving you the look of an evil eye. These older Korean women didn’t want my sweaty sweat in the clean water People’s evil eye will inform you, if you let it. When people give you an evil look, you should always be curious about why it’s being given. Try to learn the purpose behind it. Maybe they’re just having a bad day. Maybe you’re making a mistake and didn’t realize it.

Instead of using my blue glass evil eye to protect me from the evil eye, I think of it as a magic translator. Helping me understand the evil eyes given to me by others. I guess understanding other’s evil eye is protection anyway. And there’s always good reasons behind evil eyes if you take the time to understand them.

The Angel Eye

We can transcend evil eyes we might receive from others, and just let it be an “eye.” A single eye. In Buddhism they call that single eye the “urna”, and it symbolizes devine vision. That third eye provides us with perception beyond what our regular eyes can see. And when we use our inner eye, we can turn an evil eye into an angel eye. Those Korean women gave me the evil eye, because they want the Koren spa to be a safe, healing and enjoyable place for all. I used my eye for an eye and magically translated their look to mean such. That magic translator changed the evil eye into an angel eye, and everyone was protected well throughout our day at the spa.